Been there, done that 

Have you ever seen something or been somewhere and experienced a feeling that you’ve been there before or done this some other time? If yes, then you’ve probably experienced a phenomenon known as déjà vu.

“We have all some experience of a feeling, that comes over us occasionally, of what we are saying and doing having been said and done before, in a remote time - of our having been surrounded, dim ages ago, by the same faces, objects, and circumstances - of our knowing perfectly what will be said next, as if we suddenly remember it!” (Dickens in David Copperfield - chapter 39)

From our friends at Wikipedia, déjà vu or promnesia, is the experience of feeling sure that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously, although the exact circumstances of the previous encounter are uncertain. The term was coined by a French psychic researcher, Émile Boirac (1851–1917) in his book “L’Avenir des sciences psychiques” (”The Future of Psychic Sciences”), which expanded upon an essay he wrote while an undergraduate. The experience of déjà vu is usually accompanied by a compelling sense of familiarity and also a sense of “eeriness,” “strangeness” or “weirdness”. The “previous” experience is most frequently attributed to a dream, although in some cases there is a firm sense that the experience “genuinely happened” in the past.

On Tuesday, I sensed a strong feeling of déjà vu as I looked out the window and the driveway was once again covered in snow. Last Sunday afternoon, it was in the neighborhood of 57° F, and I was so tempted to pull one of the Ducati motorcycles out of winter hibernation for a short mid-winter ride. But wait a minute, weren’t there mounds of snow, salt and grime on all the roads just a couple weeks ago? Déjà vu

Well, it didn’t happen. I had just returned Saturday night from my first business trip of the year to Jacksonville, Fla., and if memory serves me right, I shared a similar experience with you all about a year ago. Last Wednesday morning as I’m making my way to the departure gate at Indianapolis International Airport, I’m walking by the South Bend Chocolate Company, and there’s our friend Liz whipping up some sweat, savory delights. If memory serves me right, Liz can make one mean steaming hot white chocolate beverage. Déjà vu

Back to Sunday afternoon, instead of gearing up for what would have been a cool ride on questionable roads, I settled into the couch-potato mode to exercise my trigger finger on the TV remote control. Oh, the Indianapolis Colts were playing some New York team again that had brought their undefeated season to an end back in December. I guess the first-string guys needed a rest back in December. Well, I’m sure you’ve all heard the Colts managed to beat the New York Jets this time around with their first-string guys on the field, winning the AFC championship and earning their second trip in four years to the Super Bowl in Miami in a couple weeks. Déjà vu

Well, it’s time to get back to my week’s activity that has become quite interesting in that I am serving as a jury member on a very interesting case here in the state of Indiana. When all the dust settles, I’ll share a bit about this experience with you all in the following weeks here at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com.

Greg

It was a year to remember…

Wow, another year has come and gone here at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com, blessed with a weekend of outstanding weather for the second running of the Red Bull Indianapolis GP this past August 2009. To close out what has been a very interesting year we may or may not want to remember, I thought I’d share one last Wikipedia lesson with you all.

Auld Lang Syne is a Scottish poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song (Roud # 6294). It is well known in many English-speaking (and other) countries and is often sung to celebrate the start of the New Year at the stroke of midnight. By extension, its use has also become common at funerals, graduations and as a farewell or ending to other occasions.

The song’s Scots title may be translated into English literally as “old long since”, or more idiomatically, “long long ago” or “days gone by”. The phrase “Auld Lang Syne” is also used in similar poems by Robert Ayton (1570-1638), Allan Ramsay (1686-1757), and James Watson (1711) as well as older folk songs predating Burns. Matthew Fitt uses the phrase “In the days of auld lang syne” as the equivalent of “Once upon a time…” in his retelling of fairy tales in the Scots language.

Robert Burns sent a copy of the original song to the Scots Musical Museum with the remark, “The following song, an old song, of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript until I took it down from an old man”. Some of the lyrics were indeed “collected” rather than composed by the poet; the ballad “Old Long Syne” printed in 1711 by James Watson shows considerable similarity in the first verse and the chorus to Burns’ later poem, and is almost certainly derived from the same “old song”. It is a fair supposition to attribute the rest of the poem to Burns himself.

Canadian band leader Guy Lombardo is often credited with popularising the use of the song at New Year’s celebrations in America, through his annual broadcasts on radio and television, beginning in 1929. The song became his trademark. In addition to his live broadcasts, Lombardo recorded the song more than once. His first recording was in 1939. A later recording on September 29, 1947 was issued as a single by Decca Records as catalog #24260.

However, earlier newspaper articles describe revellers on both sides of the Atlantic singing the song to usher in the New Year.

A manuscript of “Auld Lang Syne” is held in the permanent collection of The Lilly Library at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.

OK, that was a pretty interesting account of want many of us may be singing this evening as we bid a fond farewell to 2009 and raise a toast to the dawn of a brighter 2010. I know I have a new destination to explore next spring as I have never visited The Lilly Library, and Bloomington, Ind., is one of our favorite destinations we pass through on many weekend motorcycle rides.

Well, it’s time to start taking down O Tannenbaum and putting Christmas back in the attic, but once again; I’d like to thank everyone for a great year of Centennial Era celebrations out on West 16^th Street at the Racing Capital of the World^®.

With this, I’m signing off for 2009 but want to wish everyone all the best for the New Year, and I’ll see you all here at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com in 2010.

Greg

Are you ready?

Since I last visited with you all here at The Experience several weeks ago, “Old Man Winter” finally reared his frosty head here in central Indiana. A week after the Thanksgiving holiday, all the weather prognosticators here in the Indianapolis area proffered the chance of a light snow-dusting Monday morning commute. Evidently everyone listened and believed this forecast, including the local Department of Public Works folks. Well, the first Monday morning of December started off with a layer of ice with a frosting of about an inch of snow on top. I know that doesn’t sound like much, especially to all our readers out on the East Coast, but what a surprise to the local snow removal teams that were literally caught in bed that morning! Even with my all-wheel-drive H3 Hummer, I did a lot of slip-sliding away all the way into the office that morning. I think I could have made better time on my ice hockey skates, or maybe one of those Tucker Sno-Cats would have been the way to go.

If you recall from my Wikipedia lesson several weeks ago, “Old Man Winter” is an alternative older name for Father Christmas, who is also known in Russian folklore as Ded Moroz, the Russian Santa Claus. Well, what better way to get into the Christmas spirit than a good old blast of “Old Man Winter” to frost the windowpanes and paint the landscape in a blanket of snow. With all these weekends of Indian summer persisting so late into autumn in my neck of the woods, still riding the motorcycles past the Thanksgiving holiday makes getting into the Christmas spirit kind of hard.

The week following that first icy December Monday morning definitely switched me into the Christmas mode. I managed to get most of my holiday decorations up, knocked off almost my entire gift list and even managed to celebrate the season’s festivities at several holiday parties. With no better half to object, my collection of two-wheeled steeds moves into the house and spends the winter months in the family room all nice and comfy warm. They even become part of the holiday decorations with a couple Christmas trees and some twinkle lights strategically placed. Ah, the life of a bachelor!

Well, after a couple weeks of “Old Man Winter” hanging around, my first day of a three-week vacation and holiday break from the daily grind started off with a 57 °F day in central Indiana last week. OK, you guessed it! I couldn’t resist. The Ducati 1098 R Bayliss LE had to depart its holiday parking spot in the family room and go for one more ride. It couldn’t really be classified as an Indian summer day, but anything warmer than 50 °F in the middle of December in central Indiana is just too good to pass up a late-season two-wheeled experience.

I knew it was too good to be true. The following morning dawned with evidence of Jack Frost back on the window panes and the local weather prognosticators talking about the chances of a white Christmas. The Ducati has resumed its position in front of the family room Christmas tree, and I guess it’s back to wrapping presents. The local Indy DESMO Ducati enthusiats club also met for a holiday celebration later last week, and the Motorcycle Sport Touring Association crew had their holiday gathering, both of course with lots of feasting and gastronomic delights. I hope I can still get into my leathers after all these holiday celebrations. You never know when “Old Man Winter” might slip away for a day or two around here and tempt a motorcycle enthusiast to get one more ride in.

Christmas is just a few days away now, so I’d like to wish each and every one of you the very best for the holiday season from all of us here at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com

Greg

Where are you?

“Old Man Winter, like the elfish creature Jack Frost, is a personification of winter, sometimes also called Father Winter. He may be an alternative older name for Father Christmas and has been identified with the Old English god Woden. In Russian folklore, Old Man Winter is known as Morozko and is also identified with Ded Moroz, the Russian Santa Claus. In English folklore, Jack Frost appears as an elfish creature who personifies crisp, cold, winter weather; a variant of Father Winter (also known as “Old Man Winter”). Some believe this representation originated in Germanic folklore specifically in the Anglo-Saxon and Norse winter customs. Tradition holds Jack Frost responsible for leaving frosty crystal patterns on windows on cold mornings.”

Yikes, yet another Wikipedia lesson on folklore of the holidays and seasons. I bet you never thought you’d be learning so much reading The Experience here at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com

Fortunately for the third weekend in a row, Old Man Winter has kept clear of central Indiana. During our Indian Summer lesson a couple weeks ago, we learned the generally accepted use of the term is when the weather is sunny and clear, and above 70° F. Last weekend turned out to be mostly sunny and clear. But with temperatures only making it into the mid 50°F both days, I don’t think we can call this Indian Summer anymore.

Having been pretty distracted from household autumn duties the past couple weekends, I did manage to focus for part of a day and, like my buddy Mike last weekend, get my yard cleaned up of all my neighbors’ leaves. Yes, you heard me right! I only have one small deciduous tree in my whole yard that drops its leaves in the fall. Unfortunately, all my neighbors around me have very large trees with mountains of leaves that inevitably end up in my yard. You would think they would want to collect all their leaves themselves!

So with my neighbors leaves disposed of, Sunday turned into another full day of wandering the back roads and small towns of Indiana with a group of like-minded motorcycle enthusiasts from the Indy DESMO Ducati owners club. A group of 11 of us made our way down some favorite twisty roads starting off in Monrovia on SR39 through Martinsville then down to Old SR37 passing through Hindustan and Dolan on our way to Bloomington. Taking SR48 west of Bloomington, we shot south on the freshly paved SR43, hitting towns like Hendricksville and Solsberry on our way to SR54. Heading west on SR54, we passed through Ridgeport, Bloomfield, Linton and Dugger on our way to our final destination in Sullivan.

Oh, I forgot to mention we did have a destination in mind for this two-wheeled adventure. The Indy DESMO group shares very similar passions as the Motorcycle Sport Touring Association (MSTA) I’ve blogged about many times here at The Experience. Both groups love to ride, and both groups love to eat. Well, our destination for the day was lunch at Joe’s Italian Foods & Pizzeria in Sullivan, Ind. Oni and Nora Leone have owned and operated Joe’s Pizza in Sullivan since February 2000. Oni is also a fellow Ducatista and is the proud owner of a Ducati Monster. Two other members of Oni’s family operate Joe’s Pizza restaurants in Robinson and Newton, Ill.

I’ve got to report to you that I experienced the best pizza I have ever tasted last Sunday at Joe’s Italian Foods & Pizzeria in Sullivan. I also experienced the same difficulty with my riding gear apparently shrinking as I did last weekend during our gastronomic tour around Indianapolis on two wheels with my riding buddy Mike.

Well, I just saw the weather forecast for the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow, and it appears Old Man Winter is finally going to make an appearance here in central Indiana with some snow, so I’ll wish you all the very best. I’ll see you all here next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com

Greg

Another Indian summer weekend

Am I still in Indiana? That was the question I was asking myself last weekend here in the Midwest in the middle of November. After our little lesson about the origins of the term “Indian summer” last week here at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com, I figured it would be snowing by this past weekend. To my surprise, central Indiana was once again blessed with a spectacular two days of fall temperatures and clear blue skies this past weekend. Several more weeks ago I shared with you all “A day in the life of a business traveler” going to Calgary, Alberta, so this week I thought I’d share a day in the life of a motorcycle enthusiast with yet another Indian summer weekend.

7:30 a.m.: Rise and shine. The sun is up, the sky is clear, the thermometer is approaching a favorable level, so it’s time to ride! Darn, all the bikes are back in cozy winter storage, so I’ve got to roll one up from the family room to the garage. It’s still a bit chilly, but I’ve got room for an extra layer under the leathers so I should be fine for a couple hours until it warms up.

8:30 a.m.: I’m suited up and ready to ride. I stopped by my riding mate Mike’s house to see if I can get him out of bed early on a Saturday morning to join the day’s ride. To my surprise, he’s already up and raking leaves in his yard and cleaning out gutters. Yikes, that’s really what I should be doing today!

9 a.m.: My temptations for Mike to join the morning’s ride apparently didn’t work, so I swung by Shapiro’s Delicatessen and met up with the local BMW riders club for breakfast. I’m the lone Ducati in a sea of BMWs, but we all share the same passion of two-wheeled adventures. Shortly after settling in to a piping hot cup of java and a plate full of eggs, bacon and toast, Mike comes zooming into the parking lot on his German steed. I guess those leaves and gutters will have to wait for another day.

11 a.m.: After a breakfast like that, my leathers seemed a bit tighter. But now that I’ve got Mike peeled away from yard work, we head up to Ducati Indianapolis on the far north side of town for a piping hot espresso. Now the table has turned, and Mike’s BMW is surrounded by a sea of Ducatis. After a couple shots of espresso and a pastry or two, it’s time to head off to the monthly meeting of the Motorcycle Sport Touring Association (MSTA).

1 p.m.: Dreyer Motorsports, on the west side of Indianapolis, had graciously offered their MSF (Motorcycle Safety Foundation) training room to host the MSTA meeting this month. Dwayne Dreyer was hanging out in the main showroom welcoming the arriving MSTA members and pointing us in the direction of the meeting room. After solving all the world’s problems, trading a few big fish stories and munching on chips and soft drinks, Mike and I suited back up once again to continue our Indian summer ride.

3 p.m.: With almost six hours since our last full meal, we head off to the far south side of town to grab a late lunch at one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants, Fireside Brewhouse. Hey, wait a minute, didn’t we just have snacks at Dreyer Motorsports and more treats at Ducati Indianapolis earlier in the day? This Indian summer riding is a very strenuous activity that consumes a lot of fuel for both the motorcycles and their riders.

5 p.m.:  With the sun settling low in the November sky and the zipper on my leathers mysteriously getting tighter and tighter, Mike and I head over to another riding buddy’s place on the near south side of Indianapolis. To both our surprise, we find Craig finishing up a full day of yard work and chores around the house with his Italian and German two-wheeled steeds setting idle in the garage. I guess Craig is lucky I didn’t swing by his place earlier in the morning on my way to rescue Mike from the same late Indian summer fate.

7 p.m.: After a full day of eating my way around the City of Indianapolis, I finally roll up the driveway of my house, checking out my yard full of leaves, and wondering if Sunday will be a day of yard work and chores or if the siren song of a two-wheeled Italian steed tempts me to avoid it for yet another week.

Well, I’ve got to confess. Sunday dawned just as Saturday had. The crew from Ducati Indianapolis successfully rescued me from my home duties yet again with a full-day ride down through the twisty roads of southern Indiana. I guess the fall duties will have to wait for another weekend, and maybe I can persuade Mike and Craig to join me for a day of raking leaves!

I’ll see you all here next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com

Greg

What is it?

“Indian summer is an informal expression given to a period of sunny, warm weather in autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, typically in late October or early November, after the leaves have turned following an onset of frost but before the first snowfall. The generally accepted use of the term is when the weather is sunny and clear, and above 21°c (70°F), and all of the leaves of the trees have turned but before the first snow has fallen; a period normally associated with mid-October to late-November in the northern states of the U.S.

Traditionally, in former times in Europe, ‘Indian summer’ was called ‘Saint Martin’s Summer,’ referring to St. Martin’s day, Nov. 11, when it was supposed to end. In British English ‘St. Martin’s Summer’ was the most widely used term until the American phrase Indian Summer became better known in the 20th century. In Italy, St. Martin’s summer (Estate di San Martino) was expected and celebrated as a rural tradition with ancient origins, and is marked by a festival throughout the peninsula on November 11. In Spain, it is called ‘Veranillo de San Miguel’ or ‘Veranillo de San Martín,’ depending on which date it occurs. It can also be called ‘Veranillo del Membrillo’ (little summer of the quince).

In Russia, it is called ‘Women’s Summer/Babye Leto (Бабье лето),’ in Poland – ‘Babie Lato’ and in Croatia ‘Bablje ljeto.’ In Galicia (northern Spain), it is called ‘Veraniño de San Martiño,’ and in Portugal it is called ‘Verão de São Martinho,’ both of which refer to St. Martin’s summer.

In Bulgaria, the phenomenon is sometimes called ‘Gypsy Summer’ (Bulgarian: циганско лято, tsigansko lyato) and in some places ‘Gypsy Christmas’ and refers to unseasonably warm weather in late fall or a warm spell in between cold periods.

In Sweden it is called ‘brittsommar,’ which is derived from Birgitta and Britta, who have their “name day” in the Swedish calendar on Oct. 7. That is when Britt Mass, an official fall open-air market, was held.

In Germany and Austria it is called “Altweibersommer”, in Hungary “vénasszonyok nyara” (Old Ladies Summer or Crone’s Summer) because the many white spider silks seen at this time of the year have been associated with the norns of Norse folklore or medieval witches.

An alternative to St Martin’s summer was ‘Saint Luke’s summer,’ as the saint’s feast day is Oct. 18. Another alternative was “All-hallown summer,” as Halloween is Oct. 31; the expression is used in Shakespeare’s King Henry IV, Part 1, Act 1 Scene 2.”

Hey, stop it, Wikipedia overload is setting in. OK we all now know that Indian Summer comes after Halloween, and every country has their own version of this time of year! Back here in good ole central Indiana, we had one spectacular Indian Summer weekend. I even had to bring one of my favorite two-wheeled toys out of a comfy winter storage to click off some miles on some of my favorite twisty roads in southern Indiana with a couple riding buddies.

Three other Yankees, two from Texas and our own “Kentucky Kid,” had a spectacular “Veraniño de San Martiño” ride last weekend at the Grand Prix of Valencia in Spain. American riders claimed three of the top seven finishing positions. Colin Edwards placed fourth on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine, while 2006 World Champion Nicky Hayden finished fifth on the Ducati Team bike. 2009 Superbike World Champion Ben Spies finished a strong seventh in a wild-card ride for the Sterilgarda Yamaha Team. Check out www.redbullindianapolisgp.com for more race details.

Hopefully this bit of Indian Summer lasts a few more days before Old Man Winter rears his ugly head. I’ve asked my friends up in Calgary, Alberta, if they could keep their “Alberta Clippers” up in their neck of the woods this year.

I’ll see you all here next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com

Greg

225-mile endurance ride

Wow, it’s Tuesday again, and I needed to take a break from yard work and put together a blog for you all today.

Well, week three of my summer vacation has rolled around, and I’ve finally gotten off my butt and jumped into some chores around the ole homestead. That monstrous old yew shrub that’s spread over the front of the house for the past 57 years received a radical transformation into a rather artfully crafted “Japanese bonsai”-looking topiary. I’ve cleaned out the 24 flowerpots and replanted them and several planting beds with over a dozen flats of summer flowers. That pile of yard debris, oops, I meant compost pile, I talked about several weeks ago has been tidied up a bit, and as soon as I get this weeks blog off to Paul, I’ve got 40 bags of “Classic Black” mulch in the driveway ready to spread around the newly planted flower beds and under the new “Japanese bonsai” creation in front of the house.

What happened to the motorcycles and lazy days in the saddle I’ve blogged about over the past couple weeks?

This past Sunday, the iDESMO Ducati club met up for a ride in southern Indiana. Seven of us met at Mann’s Harley-Davidson in Edinburgh, Ind., bright and early Sunday morning. What a sight! Five red Ducatis lined up in front of Milwaukee’s finest. iDESMO’s chapter president, Ryan, had laid out a full day ride all over the twisty state highways of south central Indiana. He even mapped out multiple fuel stops (yes, these Ducatis are thirsty beasts) and most importantly, laid out lunch, ice cream and dinner stops along the way. Hey Ryan, you would fit right in to the MSTA (Motorcycle Sport Touring Association) group quite well, as their motto is “We ride to eat.”

I rolled out of the garage around 8:30 a.m. to head down to Columbus, Ind., to start the ride. After several hours in the saddle, we stopped for lunch at the 58 Café in Kurtz, Ind. A couple more hours brought us to Bruster’s Real Ice Cream in Bloomington for tasty treats. The ride wrapped up in Franklin, Ind., with another opportunity to sate our taste buds with dinner at The Willard Restaurant. By the time I arrived back at my garage around 6 p.m., I was suffering from a pretty good case of monkey butt after 225 miles on a very thin Ducati saddle. For most of the MSTA guys, that’s nothing. Add a zero to that, and now were talking about a respectable mileage number for a typical MSTA’r weekend jaunt. In my world of superbikes, that’s a pretty challenging endurance event.

Anyway, that big pile of “Classic Black” mulch is calling out my name, so I’d better sign off for now. I’ll see you all next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com

Greg

Great roads, great curves, interesting license plates

Hoosier Hospitality, Amber Waves of Grain, The Crossroads of America, Back Home Again and Wander Indiana are but a few of the more memorable Indiana license plate mottos that have shown up over the years from the Indiana Bureau of Vehicles.

From 1905 to 1912, the Indiana General Assembly charged $1 to register a vehicle and gave each automobile owner a 2-inch diameter brass or aluminum circular seal with a number printed on it. This was hung from the vehicle’s dashboard. The owner was allowed to make an identifying placard out of leather, tin, wood or other materials to be displayed on the rear of the vehicle.

Ray Harroun drove the bright yellow Marmon “Wasp” to victory and into racing immortality in the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911. This first automotive racing event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway predated the first issuance of automotive license plates in Indiana by two years.

In 1913, Indiana issued its first license plate. The plate measured a generous 4.5″ x 14.5″ and is the only Indiana plate to have a porcelain finish on a heavy metal base. Now that’s an interesting fact to remember!

Over the decades, license plates have generally served a rather mundane identification role on automobiles, offering little to no style to their owners. The 1980s saw the beginnings of a bit of design with interesting mottos starting to show up on what had been a dull utilitarian piece of tin on the back of our four-wheeled pride and joys.

If a little style is good, then more has got to be better! In recent years, the Indiana Bureau of Vehicles has discovered just how much we motorists enjoy personalizing not just our four-wheeled vehicles but also our motorcycles.  Checking out the Indiana BMV’s Web site, I counted over 70 different specialty license plates, many of which are available for both cars and motorcycles. There are plates to tout 32 different universities, eight military specialties, 32 various organizations in addition to the two standard-issue plates. This would have definitely complicated the old vacation travel game of identifying state license plates many years ago.

If you checked out my garage lately, you’d find a whole lineup of sport motorcycles, each proudly displaying the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum license plate that benefits the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Foundation. The foundation was incorporated as a not-for-profit Indiana corporation in 1957 and is operated for educational initiatives, charitable purposes and the preservation of the most diversified auto and racing memorabilia collection in the world.

If you’d like to help support the ongoing preservation of automotive history like Ray Harroun’s Marmon “Wasp” and many others like it, contact Greta Allen at the Museum at (317) 492-6779 to reserve your Hall of Fame Museum license plate, or check out this link for more information: IMS Hall of Fame Museum License Plate

Blessed with another glorious weekend of perfect weather, I once again spent part of Saturday and most of Sunday wandering the many twisting state highways and back roads of southern Indiana on one of my sport bikes, proudly displaying my support of the Hall of Fame Museum.

I’ll see you all next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com

Greg

INDY DESMO road trip

Last weekend, INDY DESMO Owners Club members ventured to the Ropkey Armor Museum in Crawfordsville, Ind., for their first event of the 2009 year. The group included 15 members of INDY DESMO who made the trip and got to see an array of tanks and armory from several time periods and were given a personal tour of the museum by none other than Fred Ropkey himself. The tanks have been featured in movies, historical biographies and numerous cameos on film throughout the world. Mr. Ropkey even had on hand the very rare X-14-B hover plane that NASA astronauts piloted, including Neil Armstrong.

Mr. Ropkey stated that he just loved all the Ducati bikes and was quite thrilled to see them all and had not had the chance to experience the brand for himself. Being an avid rider of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, he was very impressed by the technology and couldn’t resist stating how beautiful the bikes appeared right before his eyes. Thanks go out to all those involved with the ride, and we look forward to many more in the coming months for the club. More information about the Ropkey Armor Museum can be found at www.ropkeyarmormuseum.com

OK, let’s play Where’s Waldo! Can you find me in the photo above?

Nope, I’m not there!

I started off Sunday morning meeting up with a couple MSTA (Motorcycle Sport Touring Association) members at Don & Donna’s for breakfast on the square in Franklin, Ind. The plan was to ride a little bit of the Brown County twisty road routes then head north to meet up with the INDY DESMO group for the Ropkey Armor Museum tour. Well, the “short” Brown County jaunt turned into a 200-mile ride, complete with several stops for lunch and ice cream. Yup, it’s all about the tasty treats. But best of all, the new Ducati in my stable has reached that magic 600-mile point. After my friends at Ducati Indianapolis complete the 600-mile initial service and inspections, I’ll be able to really experience the power of the new 1098 R Bayliss LE.

With another weekend of motorcycle adventures under the belt, it’s time to get back to the grind, and I’ll see you all next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com

Greg

Bring on the “leafers”

This time of year in central Indiana can be full of interesting surprises from Mother Nature. Those of you who experienced the inaugural running of the Red Bull Indianapolis GP back in September can certainly vouch for that! Fortunately, this past weekend was a glorious example of how great the combination of clear, warm, sunny days can be with the onset of the fall symphony of colors across the Hoosier state.

After two solid weeks of business travel with all the associated joys of airports, hotels and alien cities, I ended up with a long weekend that was blessed with unbelievable weather for this time of the year. One thing I have learned over all the years of travel is the humor you can find wherever you may be stuck. I hope this pilot figured out where he was going!

I decided to forgo all the fall chores around the homestead and ended up spending most of all three days exploring the twisty routes around central and southern Indiana. The onset of the traditional fall foliage has also brought out hordes of “leafers” out for leisurely drives to gawk at the colors of the fall season.

This past Sunday, Oct. 12 also marked the monthly meeting of the HSTA (Honda Sport Touring Association). Our meeting destination this month was the 58 Café in Kurtz, Ind. Being only four blocks long and three blocks wide, you would miss it if you blinked twice during a spirited blast across IN SR 58. Well, based on previous blogs about the HSTA group, you should remember that indulging in culinary delights is one of our main mission statements. The breaded tenderloins and homemade pies definitely put the town of Kurtz and the 58 Café high on the HSTA destination list.

We’ll have to ask fellow HSTA’er Mike Harrell if the coconut cream pie at the 58 Café even comes close to the brownie fudge caramel ice cream delight at the South Bend Chocolate Company on Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis.

Fortunately, the monthly meeting agenda items were handled expeditiously, giving all the attendees plenty of time to enjoy a hardy lunch prior to round two of one of our favorite fall pastimes; dodging the meandering stream of fall “leafers.”

My trip back up to Indy also included one of the ultimate surprises for a sport bike rider; a 14-mile long, curvy ribbon of freshly laid pavement across IN SR 45 between Unionville and Beanblossom, Ind. What better experience could one ask for to wrap up a glorious fall weekend in central Indiana.

I’ll see you all in a couple weeks at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com.

Greg